Vibrator



Nov. 5, l940. a p c op 2,220,614

VIBRATOR Filed July 26, 1939' Patented Nov. 5, 1940 UNITED STATES VIBRATOR George B. Pickop, New Haven, Conn., assignor to The New Haven Vibrator Company, Inc., New Haven, C'onn., a corporation of Connecticut Application July 26, 1939, Serial No. 286,512

5 Claims.

This invention relates to percussion tools and more particularly to tools of this character provided with a body having therein a cylinder and a piston designed to be reciprocated in the cylin- 5 der by means of a pressure fluid, such as compressed air, the piston rapping against the cylinder heads at the ends of its stroke. As shown, the invention is applied to so -called vibrators or rappers, although it will be understood that it may be used with percussion tools of other types. I

In the use of tools of the character described above, experience has shown that the piston will sometimes come to rest on dead center or in such a position that either the motive fluid will not be directed to either end of the cylinder, or it may be directed to both ends of the-cylinder equally, and hence the piston will not start. The inlet and exhaust ports of these devices are arranged so that the piston will always start when it is adjacent one of the cylinder ends, and in the past it has been the custom to place a spring in the cylinder which spring acts to maintain the piston at one end of the cylinder when the device is not in operation so that it will always be in a starting position. On account of the high speed at which these devices operate, such springs last only for a short period as they soon crystallize and break under the severe strain to which they are subjected. This means that the head of the vibrator must be removed and a new spring substituted, all of which necessitates considerable time and expense.

In addition, various other expedients have been resorted to to insure that the vibrator will always start upon application of the motive fluid. In

some instances, the two ends of the piston have been made of diiierent cross-sectional areas so that the piston will be biased toward one end of the cylinder and tend to lodge at this end when it comes to rest. Also in some instances one of the exhaust ports have been placed closer to the center than the other, so that if the piston tended to stop' in dead center position there would be 45 a leakage around one end thereof and it would tend to move toward the end of the cylinder so as to be in position to start. Various other methods have been employed to insure the self-starting operation of these tools but in practically every case the efiiciency of the vibrator is lessened or else it was necessary to use the spring with the attendant inconvenience described above.

The present invention has for one of its objects the provision of a vibrator having means whereby the piston may be readily and manually moved toward one end of the cylinder so as to place it in starting position without the use of a spring or other quickly perishable parts and without the modification of the cylinder or piston which 5" would tend to lessen the efficiency of the device.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a vibrator having a manually operated self-starting plunger or button, which extends through the body of the vibrator into the cylinder thereof to contact the piston and move it toward one end of the cylinder.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a vibrator or percussion tool having a cylinder and a piston reciprocably mounted 16 therein with a plunger movably mounted in one of the cylinder heads, the plunger having a part moved into the cylinder to contact with the piston and also having a part projected outwardly from the head for manual contact so that it may 20 be actuated by the finger of the operator to move the piston to one end of the cylinder to place it in self-starting position.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a vibrator of the character described wherein the plunger in the vibrator head is mounted for limited movement in the head, but at the same time normally retainedin the head against complete removal therefrom so that it will always be ready for actuation, and which plunger is so arranged that leakage of the motive fluid through the head about the plunger is prevented.

To these and other ends, the invention consists in the novel features and combinations of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational View, partly in sec-,- tion, of a vibrator embodying my improvements,

and 40 Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of one end of the vibrator showing the improved construction of one of the heads thereof.

To illustrate a preferred embodiment of my inventionI have shown 'a vibrator having a body H], which may be of hexagonal shape and which is provided with an interior chamberor cylinder II, closed at its ends by the end heads i2 and I3. The head l2 may be termed the attaching head as it is provided with a lug I4, n

which may be attached by a bolt l5 to'the member l6, which it is adapted to vibrate, such as a pattern plate, for example. 1 r The vibrator body is provided with the usual inlet opening I1, passages I8 and I9 to carry the motive fluid, such as compressed air to the ends of the cylinder and exhaust ports 20 and 2|. Within the cylinder is reciprocably mounted a piston 22. As these last mentioned parts form no part of the present invention, further description thereof will be unnecessary, for the operation of a vibrator of this character is well known to those skilled in the art.

The head I3 of the vibrator body has an opening therethrough formed substantially axially of the cylinder, which opening comprises an inner portion 23 of relatively smaller diameter and an outer portion 24 of relatively larger diameter, the two parts being joined by an internal shoulder 25. It may also be noted at this point that the opening 23 is slightly counterbored, as shown at 26, adjacent the inner face of the head for a purpose to be hereinafter described. At'its outer end, the enlarged portion 24 of this opening in the head is provided with internal threads 21 to receive an externally threaded gland nut 28.

Within the opening of the head is movably mounted a plunger having a portion 29 of smaller diameter to extend through the portion 23 of the opening in the head and project into the cylinder, and a portion 30 of enlarged diameter, the length of which is less than the length of the enlarged portion 24 of the opening so that while the enlarged portion 30 of the plunger fits snugly in the portion 24 of the opening, it may move longitudinally therein between the shoulder 25 and the inner face of thegland nut 28. Exteriorly of the portion 30 of the plunger the latter is again reduced in size, as shown at 3|, to extend through the opening in the nut 28. This portion 3| of the plunger or stem may have mounted upon its end a button'32 to be engaged by the finger or hand of the operator so'that the plunger may be conveniently moved inwardly or to the left from the position shown in Fig. 2.

The enlarged portion 30 of the plunger has a beveled face or edge 33 which beveled edge seats against the end face of the gland nut 28, which end face may also be slightly beveled, as shown at 34, to provide for a proper and close seating of the part 30 against the face of the nut. This arrangement of these two'cooperative parts provides for a relatively close fit therebetween so as to prevent any leakage of the motive fluid through the head l3 about the plunger, which would, if not prevented, lessen the efliciency of the tool. l 1

The operation of the device may be briefly described as follows. When the vibrator or other percussion tool is in use, the operator at any time before application of the fluid pressure to the tool, may press inwardly on the head '32 of the plunger, thereby causing the small end 29 of the plunger to be projected into the cylinder and engage the end face of the piston 22, moving this piston to a position adjacent the opposite end of the cylinder or the left-hand end, as shown in Fig. 1. In this position, the piston will always be ready to start so that all the operator must do to insure the ,starting of the piston when the motive fluid is applied, is to merely press inwardly on thehead of the plunger 32. It will be noted that the opening through the head I3 is counterbored at its innerface about the plunger stem 23, so as to leave slight clearance about this stem at this point. It will be appreciated that the end face of the piston is continually striking against this face of the cylinder head-and the metal about the opening in the head might become pe'ened over, due to the continualblows of the piston.

Counterboring of the head at this point will prevent any such occurrence and will insure that the plunger will always move freely through the cylinder head so as to contact with the piston and move the latter. It will also be obvious that the operation of the piston will tend to maintain the plunger in the position shown in Fig. 2, in which the inner end of the stem is substantially flush with the inner face of the head l3. That is, the piston 22 striking against the end of the plunger will tend to hold it in its outer position or in such position that the piston will no longer strike against the inner end of the plunger but will expend its energy entirely upon the head [3. In this position the beveled edge 33 will seat against the beveled end face of the gland nut, so that there will be no leakage of the motive fluid through the head.

It will be understood that where the plunger is described as being mounted in the cylinder head, this may be a removable head as shown, or may simply be the end closure of the cylinder, and formed integrally with the wall of the vibrator.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention,'it will be understood that it is not to be limited to all of the details shown, but is capable of modification and variation within the spirit of the invention and within the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A vibrator comprising a body providing a cylinder, and an end head therefor, a piston reciprocable within the cylinder, said head having an opening therethrough, said opening having an outer portion of larger diameter, an inner portion of smaller diameter and a shoulder between said portions, a plunger movably mounted in said opening and having an enlargement at its intermediate portion-slidably fitting the outer portion of the opening, a gland nut threaded in the mouth of the opening and surrounding the plunger at the side of the enlarged portion opposite said shoulder toretain such portion between the nut and shoulder, and said plunger being protractible into the cylinder to engage and move the piston. v

2. A vibrator comprising a body providing a cylinder, and an end head therefor, a piston reciprocable within the cylinder, said head having an opening therethro-ugh, said opening having an outer portion of larger diameter, an inner portion of smaller diameter and a shoulder between said portions, a plunger movablymounted in said opening and having an enlargement at its intermediate portion slidably fitting the outer portion of the opening, a gland nut threaded in the mouth of the opening and surrounding the plunger at the side of the enlarged portion opposite said shoulder to retain such portion between the nut and shoulder, said plunger being protractible into the cylinder to engage and move the piston, and said enlarged portion having a beveled edge facing said nut.

3. A vibrator comprising a body providing a cylinder, and an end head therefor, a piston reciprocable within the cylinder, said head having an opening therethrough, said opening having an outer portion of larger diameter, an inner portion of smaller diameter and a shoulder between' said portions, a plunger movably' mounted in said opening and having an' enlargement at its intermediate portion, a gland nut threaded in the mouth of the opening and surrounding the plunger at the side of the enlarged portion opposite said shoulder to retain such portion between the nut and shoulder, said plunger being protractible into the cylinder to engage and move the piston, and said opening in the head being counterbored at the inner face of the head.

4. A vibrator having a body providing a cyl enlarged portion intermediate its ends movably' positioned in said recess, means at the mouth of said recess cooperating with said enlarged portion on the plunger to retain the latter in place, and said plunger having a part projecting exteriorly from said enlarged portion for manual actuation from without the vibrator body to effect engagement of the inner end of the plunger with the piston and move the latter toward one end of the cylinder.

5. A vibrator having a body providing a cylinder, and a head at one end of the cylinder, a piston reciprocable within the cylinder, said head having a recess opening through its outer face, and an opening of smaller diameter within said recess extending from the inner end of the recess to the inner face of the head, a plunger having a stem projecting through said opening, and an enlarged portion intermediate its ends movably positioned in said recess, means at the mouth of said recess cooperating with said enlarged portion on the plunger to retain the latter in place, said plunger having a part projecting exteriorly from said enlarged portion for manual actuation from without the vibrator body to effect engagement of the inner end of the plunger with the piston and move the latter toward one end of the cylinder, and means preventing escape of motive fluid about said plunger.

GEORGE E. PICKOP. 

